


I'm sorry, that was mean

by caseykaboom



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 17:52:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caseykaboom/pseuds/caseykaboom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony later thought it was a patently bad idea to challenge Natasha like that when Steve wasn’t around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm sorry, that was mean

Tony later thought it was a patently bad idea to challenge Natasha like that when Steve wasn’t around. Despite their disagreements (so many disagreements, many of which didn’t even happen yet but Tony could already _see_ them disagreeing)—despite their disagreements Steve was the only one likely to aid him when the situation wasn’t immediately clear. Tony refused to think what that meant for his ability to inspire trust. Tony refused to think what a lot of things meant for his ability to inspire trust.

It was only the second time the Avengers worked together, all of them, and it had been difficult, but they’d won. Steve had gone to SHIELD for debriefing, because of course he did. Thor had flown off to London. Bruce was on the couch, in a post-Hulking BSOD. Clint went with Natasha to patch up a nasty gash on her shoulder. When they emerged, Clint flopped himself onto the sofa beside Tony, and Natasha went straight to the vodka cabinet.

When she downed her first drink in one go, down her second drink in one go, and then walked toward the sofa with a third, Tony looked up at her and said, “What’s this? Natalia Alianovna needs vodka to handle a _papercut_?”

And that just _did it_ for Natasha. It was… fair, Tony conceded, she was the only one of them that was just _herself_ , she didn’t have regeneration or physical perfection, didn’t have a magical hammer that summoned thunder, didn’t have exploding arrows, didn’t have a giant green rage monster in her. She had guns and her thighs, and guns didn’t even work on the things they were fighting. Yet she was the one to close the battle, _again_ , and she _really_ didn’t deserve to be belittled for her wound, and really who was Tony to mock the whole alcohol thing, he was probably _legally_ known in some circles as Cry-me-a-bottle-of-whiskey Anthony Stark. And the whole digging up her past thing, and _flaunting_ it, compounded with the cultural insensitivity… Yes, low. Quite low. Even in Tony Stark standards. Very low.

So he made that comment, and Natasha _sprang_ on him, and he was a pretzel on the coffee table before her drink hit the floor. And suddenly alarms blared in the Tower, Bruce flipped the couch over to make for the door, but then pieces of Tony’s suit started flying in through the door so he just flattened himself against the wall instead. Through the whole commotion Tony was yelling _disengage, JARVIS, not a hostile situation DISENGAGE,_ and pieces of the suit _literally_ couldn’t access the places they needed to attach to, so they just kind of… hovered there, unsure. Clint was the first one to burst out laughing. He had an arrow trained on the chest reactor of the suit.

“I’m sorry, that was mean,” Natasha said, idly, pulling him free. Tony gawked at her. He was sure he’d pulled muscles he didn’t even know existed. “I just wanted to see what you’d do.”

Bruce had the decency to look ashamed. 


End file.
